Dr. Viswanathan MD, PhD has a broad background in Medicine, with specific training and expertise in Diabetes and research. He is the Head and Chief Diabetologist at M.V. Hospital for Diabetes, Royapuram, Chennai and also serves as the President, Prof. M. Viswanathan Diabetes Research Centre. Being a part of WHO Collaborating Centre for Research, Education and Training in Diabetes and IDF Centre of Excellence in Diabetes Care, he continues to guide and train health care professionals in India and abroad in the prevention and management of diabetes.

He also serves as a member of the high-level expert committees importantly in the area of diabetes and diabetic foot care. He is the First Asian President-Elect D Foot International, which is an organization consisting of experts from 193 Countries. He is also the vice-president of Research Society for the Study of Diabetes in India. He has more than 400 research publications in the area of primary prevention and management of diabetes, diabetic foot and prevention of amputation, diabetic nephropathy, socio-economics of diabetes care and Pulmonary TB and diabetes to his credits.

Initially, he and his team conducted a study on diabetes prevalence among tuberculosis patients in Chennai, showed a high prevalence of diabetes and prediabetes in TB which provided the initial insight to this co-epidemic. This motivated him to conduct further research in the same field for which he was honoured with Vivian Fonseca Scholar Award by American Diabetes Association in 2013. He collaborates with the premier TB research institute, NIRT and is presently engaged in TBDM projects as a part of RePORT India Consortium.